Joan, EMPAC, and Life after Joan

Albany Pro Musica’s production of Voices of Light came and went this past Saturday evening, quite successfully, I would say. About 700 saw and heard the performance. How unusual it is for me to write “saw and heard” instead of just “heard,” but as everyone must know by now, there was also a film involved. In fact, for many, it was more about this transfixing film than about APM.

And only APM brings such an unusual and transforming event to the Capital Region.

EMPAC is an astounding facility. I was able to get a tour of it two summers ago as it was being completed, a tour given by the main man, Johannes Goebel, and what he showed me was incredible. The thought given to every detail, including acoustics, lights, changeability, comfort…well, it was incredible.

But seeing all that and performing there are two different things. Performing there was spectacular. Visually stunning, acoustically fabulous. And this particular performance was, for APM, as highly technical as we ever get by far! And EMPAC is the place that handles technical demands with complete ease and with great friendliness and complete competence on the part of the tech staff. Steve, I need some light on my hands and baton so the performers can see me but the audience can’t. No problem. And there is it.

Michael Slattery, our tenor soloist who performs all over the world, was stunned by the hall, and kept saying it was a hall worthy of any major city in the world.

3 Responses

David – As a follow up to my “strange” telephone call to you a few months ago, I did attend “Voices of Light…” on Saturday at EMPAC. I was absolutely blown away! To give a little background, I stumbled on “The Passion of Joan of Arc” on Tuner Movie Classics (or something akin) in the middle of the night some months back and was alternately (as well as contemporaneously) riveted/repelled/fascinated…well, you get the idea. I then went posthaste to Amazon and bought it. There’s a lot more to my particular story, but suffice it to say that my jaw hit the floor when I got the APM mailer with upcoming events. (I was completely unaware that APM had done “The Passion…” in ’05 at the Cathedral – besides which I was quite convinced that I was one of a handful of people or so ON THE PLANET that even knew it existed! [Yeah, right, Darc’, however did TCM uncover this gem??!!]) Anyway, thank you and APM soooo much for an extraordinary and memorable evening. [I brought husband and best friend along for the ride – they, too, were flabber – astoun – impre – uh, BLOWN AWAY!] Best regards.